I've been looking around, but I haven't really been able to find any dual sword builds. I know people would suggest using sword/pistol, but do any of you know of any sword/sword build I can use for PVE? I would prefer using a greatsword as secondary too. Thanks.

Edit: What stats do you guys go for in terms of items, and what utility skills would you use?

Sword/Sword and Great Sword are a pretty typical combination for a power-type Mesmer. I don't know much about the way of popular builds at current since I'm not too high level, but I'm sure that most builds are pretty similar until level 40, at which point that's when people learn to specialize (because the better mesmer traits come by level 40 upward.)

Lately I run 0/15/20/15/20, real creative I know but I'm too lazy to switch all the darn time. that's with a staff and 2 swords tho. Maybe try flipping the 20 points I have in Chaos to Domination if you wanna use a sword.

I was just coming here to ask the same thing as the OP. After watching a sword/sword mesmer 7 levels below me steamroll an area that I was struggling with, I decided that something had to gives . I've been using staff and s/p and recently staff/gs but I kill so slowly that respawns give me fits. I am traited for condition damage (due to focusing mostly on the staff) and I'm now thinking that conditions are not the way to go. The extra survivability the staff provides ends up getting offset by being jumped by respawns. I'm thinking of going power/precision and picking up defensive talents from the duelist line (where I currently don't have any points).

Just my two pence worth but I've recently been running a 10/30/0/0/30 shatter build with dual swords. With Blade Training and Deceptive Evasion you've got pretty quick clone/phantasm generation (Illusionary Reposte is great, ignore the haters - you just have to time it when an enemy is starting to swing at you a bit like trying to interrupt their attack) and Illusionary Person is just too amazing when you're in melee range. I've found that I'm routinely smashing aoe damage with Mind Wrack critting often and with IP it's often worth shattering with two or even just one clone out.

The other thing that's great about IP is that it lets you shatter with no clones out. This is amazing for tagging mobs in DEs and you can use Cry Of Frustration and Diversion to tag too. With 30 points in Illusion all your shatters cause confusion too, which helps rack up even more damage.

I've found the build to have decent dps and is surprisingly durable. I'm running with Knight's gear (Power, Precision, Toughness) and the extra toughness really helps. Health pool is a little low so you have to watch your positioning but with Blade Training you can Blurred Frenzy every 8 seconds meaning that 2 out of 10 seconds (20% of the time) you're invulnerable to damage. Been running this on cursed shore and can handle mobs of up to three quite nicely.

None of this will help you at level 37 as for me it's IP that really allows the build to shine, but Blade Training is great and really pushes up survivability in my experience.

I don't run a particularly smart build, nor do I play a particularly smart Mesmer. By and large, I spend most fights running around swinging my swords like a wild man (though in my mind I'm a Jedi, since I'm using Cabalist skins), hitting the wrong buttons, dodging as much as possible and chopping things to get critical hits to feed my vigor.

It ain't pretty, but I always have three illusions out and tend to take little or no damage, even during heavy DE zergs. Sword AoE for the win.

That's for general PvE. Dungeons are a whole different matter, and I've been putting that and PvP off until later, when I finally (theoretically) learn to actually play responsibly. Heck, I might even clear the cobwebs off my staff (I only use it for nasty champ/AoE spam situations) and start throwing buffs and such. Eventually.

Thing is, for as random and sloppily as I play my Mesmer, I routinely handle things I know none of my other toons (I play all the professions, and most of the others "properly") can handle -- even my Guardian. And I also routinely see other players get their asses handed to them by the same situations.

That's not bragging, because seriously, I suck. But as long as I keep spamming illusions, they keep blowing up spreading conditions and stacking confusion, I keep moving, and my swords keep swinging, I am damn near immortal.

I have a 20/20/5/20/5 build and I run with sword/sword and GS. It works fine out and about by myself. I almost never die. In dungeons, I generally go sword/focus and GS. It seems to do alright, but I haven't ran enough dungeons to really be able to tell.

I've been running a 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build with sword/sword + GS. It's been working great, and does insane burst damage. Also strong for dungeons if you use your shatters wisely and are good at swapping weapons often.

I love s/s first of all. i couldn't get into the greatsword at all after the first 2 betas. just didn't feel right anymore so i am s/s + staff.

staff for the amazing verstility with the chaos armor + chaos storm, to phase retreat (Leap & clone) and phantasmal warlock in which with every extra condition on the enemy : 10% more damage. works really well in champion or boss mobs. either way that is my range weapon as s/s is my main build dough my current trait build is 30/30/0/0/10 specific traits were picked towards the shattering build mesmer.

this build is basically towards s/s and little to none that would improve my staff skills. eversilentone has describe alot of the s/s skills in which are very "well-done" in my opinion, with the counter block & clone, immoblization leap, & to blurr frenzy imo OP, etc. my traits may be more towards damage & critical hit, but my armor is currently exotic Knights with pwr/pre/Toughness (Toughness being the major trait). rune is Divnity +all stats. pretty average overall defense and hp, as i like being in close-combat in dungeons or wvw.

i still want to try the other traits as illusion, chaos, and inspiration look very interestng. i love mesmers and how there are so many builds in which you can try and get comfortable too. whatever you want to try do it don't let others tell you otherwise.

but my final advice on the s/pistol, the 2 pistol skills are just arent reliable in a long pve farm. as magic bullet being a great stun/daze, skill cooldown is rather too long for my tase, and phantasm duelist in my opinion, its animation is really slow to attack again. hope this helps

My current plan is a mix of Power/Precision/CritDamage, Power/Precision/Toughness, and Power/Vitality/Toughness as I test the waters on where I want my stats balance to be.

IMO with the setup of Sword+OH / Greatsword, you will be naturally lacking in damage mitigation, the former because you are melee and the latter because your only defensive abilities are cripple on Berserker (indirect) and one knockback, both of which don't help much against ranged damage. Through some combination of utilities, traits, and stats, you will need to make up for this.

My current traits are 10/15/15/25/5, which hits a lot of phantasmal/defensive traits, and gives me a lot of leeway with the rest of my setup (I'm pretty damn hard to kill even when putting 0 defensive stats on gear).

One more here that loves the s/s combo \o I use and abuse of the riposte (both to block and to daze) since I feel it weaves very fluidly into my playstyle (specially with risen mobs that attack you almost immediately after getting in melee range of you). I also use staff as secondary as it serves as a more defensive weapon for me (or for champions if I want to aim for 3x warlocks and stay ranged).

I run a 20/20/0/21(going for 30)/0 build atm since I'm not shattering all the time and am letting my phantasms do some damage. For gear I'm trying full explorer's and opal jewelry atm (power/prec/magic find) to see if I get any cool shinies I can take groups of 3-4 mobs solo with almost no problem at all (can probably kill them faster if I switch to sword/focus and work with temp curtain/into the void for positioning into warden's range, but I like my block ) but in events with more ppl around I usually switch to gs to just pound into the groups of mobs because those tend to die very fast anyway (and the gs has 3 aoe offensive skills).

I previously used a dual sword / staff build when I was around 40 or so and I found it risky but pulling off a clutch ditortion bf or dodge was really satisfying. Now before lotging last night I retraited myself to a 20/20/0/0/30 build that utilizes deceptive evasion and mind wrack along with illusionary persona. I didnt get a chance to put this build to the test before logging so I cant give specifics atm. That said here is my planning behind the playstyle. Im geared for power prec crit dmg and taking gs qs my offset weapon. Its damage is good and overs good cc along with quick aoe for dynamics. Good offense and control equals a good defense. It will definetly be a high skill cap build with high risk. As for utilities sadly mesmers lack variety. In group play null field and feedback are to good to pass up most of the time. Same applies for timewarp. Ill definetly post the outcome of my second try at melee. Oh and ai would like to say I rather enjoyed it while oevwling and I only switched because I like to mix things up quite frequently to keep gameplay fresh.

Hi all s/s lovers!
I tried this weapon set (with GS secondary) after 18 painful levels of s/p and I fell in love immediately. Things just got so much easier.
Now, I just dinged lvl31 today, and my traits are 0/6/0/5/10 with traits: 3% more dmg for all active illusions, Phantasms have retaliation (for instant attack when summoned), vigor on crit and CD lowered on illusion summons.
My skills are ether feast, decoy, feedback (when I need to run to those ranged foes), and mirror images (I can change this one) and elite is moa morph (time warp in groups).
I'm going for stats power and prec currently.

Now, what I'm asking is, am I going in the right direction? Right traits and such. I would also want to see a "base" build for s/s, that I could modify for my needs.

I'd like to wield double sword, mainly because it looks cool.
But what I'm concerned about are the sword/sword skills, as opposed to the sword/pistol combination that I sport now.
Swapping a quick multi stun and a ranged illusion with high dps in for a single block and a melee illusion seems like a severe downgrade to me, especially with my full "of the mesmer" robes, that grant +33% stun duration.

As promised I'm going to share my findings as a fairly well geared s/s mesmer. The build I mentioned earlier works fantastically! It is definetly high risk high reward gameplay without gearing vit or tough. That said its extremely fun to see huge burst numbers and even moreso in aoe situations like dynamics. With nearly 40% crit I almost always have enough endurance for a dodge roll which is definitly needed to stay alive on heavy damge fights. For those that think pistol overshadows sword there are some things that make sword very competetive. Firstly having a block and daze on Riposte is fantastic to either stay alive or interrupt powerful spells. Also when successful on the block the counter hit actually does significant damage along with summoning the clone. Phantasmal Swordsman hits like a truck. Huge spike damage which compliments the shatter playstyle extremely well, fire once then blow him up. In addition PS is one of the few blast finishers the profession has access to and such is amazing in group play. Giving healing and chaos/fire armors extremely frequently during aoe. I will say that the build takes some time to get used too if you've been using a standard ranged or phantasm build. Utilizing shatters properly is huge and takes skillful timing but os ever so satisfying. I definitely encourage my fellow mesmers out there to atleast try this build for a little bit. So much fun and feels very epic to be the only one up in the bosses face pulling off clutch distortions,dodges, and interrupts galore. Now I would like to add that I prefer to commit fully to the damage build and use a greatsword however staff gels very well also giving you more escapes and conditions if you like utilizing them. Hopefully that wasnt too long winded... Im just excited is all hehe.

Sword/Sword and Great Sword are a pretty typical combination for a power-type Mesmer. I don't know much about the way of popular builds at current since I'm not too high level, but I'm sure that most builds are pretty similar until level 40, at which point that's when people learn to specialize (because the better mesmer traits come by level 40 upward.)

Even so, best of luck in finding a build!

there is NOTHING typical for ANY mesmer setup

i use greatsword/sword+pistol, or greatsword/staff or greatsword/sword+focus. i wear full berserkers for pve and either full rampagers or knights for wvw. my weapons change depending on my mood and my goals. my trait spec, however, remains the same

Here's the link to my build as promised. I'd like to add a couple things to clarify on some of my choices.
1. Domination - Rending Shatter - I'm currently using this trait because I've come to realize that sticking to melee is the whole point of going dual sword and thus I use this for more aoe damage and with it Vulnerability stacking is quite easy. In addition, by going 20 Dom. I'm able to switch to Greatsword Training for fights where sticking to melee for too long has far too many risks to pay off.
2. Dueling - Deceptive Evasion - Arguably the most important trait choice in the build. With near 100% Vigor uptime dodging becomes part of the "dance" to create more shatter ammo. Takes practice but is very important to utilize this when possible without condemning yourself to damage and/or death because of Endurance availability...or lack thereof.
3. Illusions - Compounding Power - Now at first glance this trait is way off in the other direction for what this build is attempting to achieve, and I fully agree BUT the damage added in the few seconds you are generating clones or waiting for a shatter to come off CD adds up quick and more importantly the damage increase effects shatter damage as well.
4. Illusions - Illusionary Persona - Amazing trait that is looked over way too often imo. Even without utilizing a shatter based build the utility of having shatters available without clones is fantastic. Just used MW for big damage and have 0 endurance. Don't fret. Just use Distortion and be invincible for a second. Need to interrupt but don't have time for clone generation. Have no fear. Daze and don't waste a clone doing it. Its awesome on so many levels. And the best reason is for a build like this an extra clone in the form of yourself makes for huge damage and cc. Time a good daze with 3 clones out and you can keep a target locked down for 4 full seconds! That is ages in this game. Even more crazy is that you can have Distortion for 4 second!!! If you haven't guessed I love this trait. The only way it would get better is if we get another melee centric weapon in the future and / or it went back to being bugged like in beta lol.

And I'm still not done. Illusionary Persona can actually be swapped for Imbued Diversion (along with gs training from Dom) when in situations where melee is impossible and now you bring AoE CC even from ranged.

I'd like to reiterate that currently I'm using a glass cannon power, precision, crit damage build (for the most part) so it is very risky by comparison to say a phantasm build or a condition build. Give it a go and tell me how you like it. I like living on the edge so it might not be for everyone but damn is it fun to see mobs melt

EDIT: I just noticed that it didn't show my utility skills choices in the link so I'll add here since I can't get it to save properly.

Ether Feast - What else is there? lol
Null Field or Arcane Thievery - Both great condition removals but I normally go Null Field for more group utility and the Chaos Armor having another combo field down can give
Signet of Domination or Signet of Illusions - this one is a tough call tbh. Currently I run SoD because of the bleeds that I occasionally put out with the burst from Berserker and Swordsman and honestly when fighting you don't really need the shatter recharge because they come up quickly when full 30 into Illusions. This is a personal preference at best and both are great choices.
Feedback - Tbh its too good for its own good. It wrecks alot of boss mechanics, fends off ranged mobs, and gives a combo field. One of the most amazing abilities in game only dwarfed by Timewarp tbh. It is a must no matter what build you are using. Use it because if you don't you're doing it wrong lol

This is one amazing build... so good in fact I created an account here just to post a reply on how good it is. I was steamrolling through Orr yesterday and felt like a beast. My previous build was a condition dmg with primary staff and GS as my backup. Survival was there but I felt fights were drawn out and taking too long. I always did enjoy S/S while leveling up but stuck to the staff with a focus on Carrion armor. The only change I made to the build is using blink under the utilities since I find the extra mobility option works well if things get too hot and a dodge is not enough.

This build is what I've been thinking of. Looks really good, but I can't go "steamroll through Orr" right now, because Mesmer is my alt and still lvl 37.

Only thing changing I can think of might be taking Decoy over condi removal or the signet. Propably instead of the cond remover, because this level zones don't have it much. Decoy is just really good skill to get out of a cluster.

Thanks for the positive feedback. And I agree with both of you that blink and decoy could have a spot in this build. I occasionally swap out the signet for either one depending on the situation I plan to go into. Glad to see people having fun with it

If anyone still have some suggestions or questions, by all means toss them out there and I'll do my best. Mesmer 4 Life

Here's the link to my build as promised. I'd like to add a couple things to clarify on some of my choices.
1. Domination - Rending Shatter - I'm currently using this trait because I've come to realize that sticking to melee is the whole point of going dual sword and thus I use this for more aoe damage and with it Vulnerability stacking is quite easy. In addition, by going 20 Dom. I'm able to switch to Greatsword Training for fights where sticking to melee for too long has far too many risks to pay off.
2. Dueling - Deceptive Evasion - Arguably the most important trait choice in the build. With near 100% Vigor uptime dodging becomes part of the "dance" to create more shatter ammo. Takes practice but is very important to utilize this when possible without condemning yourself to damage and/or death because of Endurance availability...or lack thereof.
3. Illusions - Compounding Power - Now at first glance this trait is way off in the other direction for what this build is attempting to achieve, and I fully agree BUT the damage added in the few seconds you are generating clones or waiting for a shatter to come off CD adds up quick and more importantly the damage increase effects shatter damage as well.
4. Illusions - Illusionary Persona - Amazing trait that is looked over way too often imo. Even without utilizing a shatter based build the utility of having shatters available without clones is fantastic. Just used MW for big damage and have 0 endurance. Don't fret. Just use Distortion and be invincible for a second. Need to interrupt but don't have time for clone generation. Have no fear. Daze and don't waste a clone doing it. Its awesome on so many levels. And the best reason is for a build like this an extra clone in the form of yourself makes for huge damage and cc. Time a good daze with 3 clones out and you can keep a target locked down for 4 full seconds! That is ages in this game. Even more crazy is that you can have Distortion for 4 second!!! If you haven't guessed I love this trait. The only way it would get better is if we get another melee centric weapon in the future and / or it went back to being bugged like in beta lol.

And I'm still not done. Illusionary Persona can actually be swapped for Imbued Diversion (along with gs training from Dom) when in situations where melee is impossible and now you bring AoE CC even from ranged.

I'd like to reiterate that currently I'm using a glass cannon power, precision, crit damage build (for the most part) so it is very risky by comparison to say a phantasm build or a condition build. Give it a go and tell me how you like it. I like living on the edge so it might not be for everyone but damn is it fun to see mobs melt

EDIT: I just noticed that it didn't show my utility skills choices in the link so I'll add here since I can't get it to save properly.

Ether Feast - What else is there? lol
Null Field or Arcane Thievery - Both great condition removals but I normally go Null Field for more group utility and the Chaos Armor having another combo field down can give
Signet of Domination or Signet of Illusions - this one is a tough call tbh. Currently I run SoD because of the bleeds that I occasionally put out with the burst from Berserker and Swordsman and honestly when fighting you don't really need the shatter recharge because they come up quickly when full 30 into Illusions. This is a personal preference at best and both are great choices.
Feedback - Tbh its too good for its own good. It wrecks alot of boss mechanics, fends off ranged mobs, and gives a combo field. One of the most amazing abilities in game only dwarfed by Timewarp tbh. It is a must no matter what build you are using. Use it because if you don't you're doing it wrong lol

I have played with eversilentone's build for the past day or two now - was reticent at first as I wasn't overly keen on mantras (over utility), but I have to say it is awesome - dps especially in DEs in Cursed Shore has upped considerably and getting plenty of tagged mobs is no longer such an issue.

Timewarp in almost all circumstances. As I mentioned with Feedback, it's too good to pass up 99% of the time.

Now I also wanted to comment on my own build after doing a full night of Explorables, most of which were in HoTW. This instance does not like melee at all so it was quite difficult to get the groove of, but I'm happy to report that with a little tweaking of playstyle, positioning, and taking extra care of situational awareness it actually works very well. In rooms with large, lingering AOE (especially if the boss stands in it) there isn't much anyone can do by themselves BUT one of the best feelings I've had in game was utilizing combo fields from my guildmates. Teamspeak or Vent makes this game so much better and this is just one reason why. The ele would call out "water field" and I would make sure to have either my Berserker or Swordsman ready for a Finisher. It's an amazing synergy that has to be experienced because proper combos can make the impossible into probable. For those running this build in the explorable content and finding trouble try some group play like I've described and you'll find that the build is more than just viable but also extremely satisfying to play. On another note I'd like to point out that the damage boost your group can gain from near 25 vulnerability stacks is quite substantial, so don't be afraid to toss Diversion with 3 illusions out. It benefits not only you but the whole group. I normally toss this on CD if I have 3 clones and I am in melee. Thanks again to the GW2 community. You all are awesome

I dinged 40 today, picked up traits 0/20/0/0/10 from your build and going to 20 illusions before the going into domination. The clone on dodge just changed this whole build for me. I can spam 3 clones ->f1, 3 clones ->f2, 3 clones ->f1 and then get 3 clones up and rack up some dmg (due to 3% more dmg for each illusion trait) and then again f1->f2->f1. If course the mob dies on the very first f1 of this chain, but this chain is what I use against solo veteran/group champion.

Only annoying thing about the dodge clones is, that they go for the closest mob, not the one I'm targetting. I hope they fix this if it's a bug.